Summary

  • Yelp has long provided consumers with information on everything from local cafes to plumbers and tailors.
  • Having experimented with machine learning since its early days, the company is now deploying large language models to power some features.
  • Having launched Yelp Assistant, its AI-powered service search assistant, in April this year, usage figures for its AI tools actually began to decline.
  • Speaking to VentureBeat, Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp, said that it took the company a long time to understand why usage was falling amongst occasional users.
  • These users were not expecting to speak to an AI representative when looking up information on the site or app.
  • Yelp is also using AI for its Review Insights and Highlights features.

By Emilia David

Original Article